During the First World War in 1917, in the British trenches at Passchendaele, an army private, Arthur Hamp (Tom Courtenay) is accused of desertion. He is to be defended at his trial by Captain Hargreaves (Dirk Bogarde). Hamp had been a volunteer at the outbreak of the war and was the sole survivor of his company, but then decided to "go for a walk"; he had contemplated walking to his home in London but after more than 24 hours on the road, he is picked up by the Military Police and sent back to his unit to face court-martial for desertion.
Hargreaves is initially impatient with the simple-minded Hamp, but comes to identify with his plight. Following testimony from an unsympathetic doctor (Leo McKern) (whose solution to all ailments is to prescribe laxatives), Hargreaves is unable to persuade the court to consider the possibility that Hamp may have been suffering from shell shock. He is found guilty, but the court's recommendation for mercy is overruled by higher command, who wish to make an example of Hamp to bolster morale in his division. He is shot by firing squad, but as he is not killed outright Hargreaves has to finish him off with a revolver. His family are informed that he has been killed in action.[9][10]
The film was re-released by American International Pictures (AIP) in 1966 and developed a cult following. However in 1973 Losey said that records had the film recording a loss.[2]
The New York Times called it "an impressive achievement," noting "As usual, Mr. Losey has drawn the best from his actors," and concluding that "Some of its scenes are so strong they shock. Those who can take it will find it a shattering experience."[11]
Theme
King and Country is based on an actual incident during World War I written by James Lansdale Hodson, a defense attorney in the court-martial of army deserter Private Arthur Hemp.[12] The film is set during a global conflict in which 750,000 British soldiers alone perished. Tens-of-thousands of allegations against military personnel for misbehavior were issued, 3,000 of which ended in sentences of death; of these, over 300 were carried out.[13]
A personal drama in which no combat appears, King and Country is an examination of how injustice is rationalized by a class-conscious officer corps and acted upon in the interests of military discipline and morale.[14][15]
The thematic climax of the film occurs when the officer who defended the soldier administers the coup de grâce when the demoralized members of the firing squad fail to kill the deserter. Joseph Losey, in an interview with Michel Ciment remarked:
The picture is the personal relationship between that officer and that poor private deserter…So when that pistol, that coup-de-grace, has to be fired at the end, in a sense that officer is ending his own life as well as the boy’s.[16]
Film historians James Palmer and Michael Riley note that King and Country “indicts in the most forceful terms the false values that betrayed both men…”[17][18]
Awards
Tom Courtenay received the award for the Best Actor for his role as Hamp at the 1964 Venice Film Festival, where the film was also nominated for the Golden Lion.[19] The film was nominated for four 1965 BAFTA awards, including Best Film.[20]
Footnotes
^Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 360
^ abLosey on 'broken promises'
Barker, Dennis. The Guardian 1 Aug 1973: 6.
^Callahan, 2003: “King and Country (1964) is a small, conventional war story diminished by comparison to Stanley Kubrick’s more developed Paths of Glory (1957).”
